•
Rating: The Cure have always more or less inadvertently accustomed their audience to surprises. After the first pop-punk with dark undertones of "Three Imaginary Boys", they transformed into one of the most interesting post-punk bands, with a distinct hypnotic and rarefied sound, so much so that they were compared to their compatriots, Joy Division. And after the fiery whirlwind of the apocalyptic and cryptic "Pornography", they reached a point of no return with the sophisticated lightness of the singles from "Japanese Whispers" and the irreverent psychedelic-oriental pastiche of "The Top". For "The Head On The Door", Robert Smith's admirers should expect yet another shake-up, and this time it seems to be the strongest and most decisive.
In six years, The Cure have been the only ones to delve so deep into the depths of human malaise and survive, almost miraculously.
They decided to do what no other group considered "alternative" and simultaneously adored like them would have been capable of: an incredible swerve with a steady hand towards the most melodic and radio-friendly pop-rock while maintaining their identity as a group of the most exciting and reflective new wave, not only increasing their commercial potential, but especially their musical horizons, their art as pop craftsmen, their familiarity with the most diverse genres. The step that for any other band would have been interpreted as a desire to sell out, as the beginning of the end, becomes for The Cure a small triumph of courage and willpower. A desire to emerge from the depressive period that had tied its leader to the bed and the shadows, a Smith who had increasingly less need for makeup to achieve the pallor of his face/mask, worn by difficult years and mounting stress.
These ten songs represent the last chance to prove there's still something inside, indeed, a warmth and happiness never exhibited before. Here occurs the extraordinary intersection between an old, glorious dark punk band and a new alternative rock group that has no more inhibitions but finds its strength precisely in the spontaneity of the creative process, in the fun of playing together — four little men who can find meaning in their lives thanks to the pleasures offered by these modest seven notes. It all seems like an experiment, a human jukebox fueled by the tokens of a naive, rosy-cheeked child of the mid-80s.
The overwhelming start of "In Between Days", with unheard-of acoustic guitar strums and keyboards no longer ominous, but strangely sweet and sunny, is already a declaration of intent that something has changed. Subsequently, the tracks dart from genre to genre, passing from the flamenco of "The Blood", to the delightful fable of "Six Different Ways" (which incredibly manages to intersect Prince with adorable Beatlesque echoes), from the epic arena-rock anthem of "Push", to the famous bass riff underpinning the pulsating "Screw", a wild dance number. Certainly, the accolade for the most characteristic piece of the era goes to the masterpiece of danceable college rock that is "Close To Me": it's "just" a silly love song from the charts, but it's the capsule of a decade, the perfection of the killer single for the top ten, unrepeatable, indestructible, and inimitable (especially in the overlay of playful keyboards and Robert's languid sighs that pace the piece), listen to believe.
There are, nonetheless, pieces for nostalgia seekers of the old sound, detectable in any case in "Kyoto Song", in the magnificent "The Baby Screams", and especially in the jewel of "Sinking", perhaps the highest achievement by Smith over the ten tracks, a coda full of conflicting emotions, sleepless nights, cold, a desire for redemption and alienation, a hidden seed of the future, which will ripen only four years later in the monumental "Disintegration". "The Head On The Door" remains instead the transitional album par excellence, which takes on the thankless task of cataloging — with elegance — the sounds of the present and the past, risking and risking again, being dated, banal, incomplete, confused. In reality, it is the act of strength that saved Robert Smith's life and musical career, it is the awareness that nothing ever has just one side or one color. It is not just the magnificent birth of joyful sadness, of the more amusing and humorous side of the dark: it is the joy of discovering that being a sensitive and fragile person is not a curse, but a splendid gift.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 In Between Days (02:59)
Yesterday I got so old
I felt like I could die
Yesterday I got so old
It made me want to cry
Go on, go on
Just walk away
Go on, go on
Your choice is made
Go on, go on
And disappear
Go on, go on
Away from here
And I know I was wrong
When I said it was true
That it couldn't be me and be her
Inbetween without you
Without you
Yesterday I got so scared
I shivered like a child
Yesterday away from you
It froze me deep inside
Come back, come back
Don't walk away
Come back, come back
Come back today
Come back, come back
What can't you see
Come back, come back
Come back to me
And I know I was wrong
When I said it was true
That it couldn't be me and be her
Inbetween without you
Without you
Without you
Without you
Without you
Without you
03 The Blood (03:45)
Tell me who doesn't love
What can never come back
You can never forget how it used to feel
The illusion is deep
It's as deep as the night
I can tell by your tears you remember it all
I am paralysed by the Blood of Christ
Though it clouds my eyes
I can never stop
How it feels to be dry
Walking bare in the sun
Every mirage I see is a mirage of you
As I cool in the twilight
Taste the salt on my skin
I recall all the tears
All the broken words
I am paralysed by the Blood of Christ
Though it clouds my eyes
I can never stop
When the sunset's glow drifts away from you
You'll no longer know
If any of this was really true at all...
04 Six Different Ways (03:20)
This is stranger than I thought
Six different ways inside my heart
And every one I'll keep tonight
Six different ways go deep inside
I'll tell them anything at all
I know I'll give them more and more
I'll tell them anything at all
I know I'll give the world and more
They think I'm on my hands and head
This time they're much too slow
Six sides to every lie I say
It's that American voice again
"It was never quite like this before
Not one of you is the same... "
This--this is stranger than I ever thought
Six different ways inside my heart
And everyone I'll keep tonight
Six different ways go deep inside
05 Push (04:35)
Go go go
push him away
no no no
don't let me stay
He gets inside to stare at her
the sleeping mouth
the mouth that knows
the secret you
always you
a smile to hide the fear away
oh smear this man across the walls
like strawberries and cream
it's the only way to be
Exactly the same clean room
exactly the same clean bed
but I've stayed away too long this time
and I've got too big to fit this time
06 The Baby Screams (03:46)
heaven
give me a sign
waiting for the sun to shine
pleasure fills up my dreams
and I love it
like a baby screams
it's so useless
how can you be proud
when you're sinking into the ground
into the ground fills up my dreams
and I love it
like a baby screams
couldn't ask for more you said
take it all
and strike me
strike me dead
waiting again
waiting
like I waited before
waiting again
waiting here for nothing at all
heaven fills up my dreams
and I love it
like a baby screams
couldn't ask for more you said
couldn't ever let it end
take it all
take it all
and strike me dead
heaven!
heaven!
07 Close to Me (03:26)
I've waited hours for this
I've made myself so sick
I wish I'd stayed asleep today
I never thought this day would end
I never thought tonight could ever be
This close to me
Just try to see in the dark
Just try to make it work
To feel the fear before you're here
I make the shapes come much too close
I pull my eyes out
Hold my breath
And wait until I shake...
But if I had your faith
Then I could make it safe and clean
If only I was sure
That my head on the door was a dream
I've waited hours for this
I've made myself so sick
I wish I'd stayed asleep today
I never thought this day would end
I never thought tonight could ever be
This close to me
But if I had your face
I could make it safe and clean
If only I was sure
That my head on the door was a dream
08 A Night Like This (04:17)
Say goodbye on a night like this
If it's the last thing we ever do
You never looked as lost as this
Sometimes it doesn't even look like you
It goes dark, it goes darker still, please stay
But I watch you like I'm made of stone as you walk away
I'm coming to find you if it takes me all night
A witch hunt for another girl
For always and ever is always for you
Your trust
The most gorgeously stupid thing
I ever cut in the world
Say hello on a day like today
Say it everytime you move
The way that you look at me now
Makes me wish I was you
It goes deep
It goes deeper still this touch
And the smile
And the shake of your head
And the smile
And the shake of your head
I'm coming to find you if it takes me all night
Can't stand here like this anymore
For always and ever is always for you
I want it to be perfect like before
I want to change it all
I want to change
I'm coming to find you if it takes me all night
Can't stand here like this anymore
For always and ever is always for you
I want it to be perfect like before
I want to change it all
I want to change
I want to change it all
I want to change
09 Screw (02:40)
When you screw up your eyes
When you screw up your face
When you throw out your arms
And keep changing your shape
Taste the taste in your mouth
Taste the taste on your tongue
On the film on your eyes of what I've become
What do I do when you screw up your eyes?
What do I do when you screw up your face?
What do I do
When you throw out your arms
Fall on the floor
And keep changing your shape?
Jump right into your mouth?
Jump around on your tongue?
And the film on your eyes of the way I've become
Makes me sick at the way that I try
Anything in the world
To impress that I'm doing this
Only for you
10 Sinking (04:53)
I am slowing down
As the years go by
I am sinking
So I trick myself
Like everybody else
The secrets I hide
Twist me inside
They make me weaker
So I trick myself
Like everybody else
I crouch in fear and wait
I'll never feel again...
If only I could remember
Anything at all
Loading comments slowly
